Biography Biography Biography JOHN KAY & STEPPENWOLF In the chaotic world of rock 'n' roll, in which the lifespan of most bands can be measured in terms of a few years or a few months, John Kay and Steppenwolf have emerged as one of rock's most enduring and respected bands, delivering hard-hitting, personally-charged music for more than three decades. In the late 1960s, Steppenwolf embodied that era's social, political and philosophical restlessness, building an impressive body of edgy, uncompromising rock 'n' roll that retains its emotional resonance more than three decades after the band's formation. Such Steppenwolf standards as "Born to Be Wild," "Magic Carpet Ride," "Rock Me" and "Monster" stand amongst Rock's most indelible anthems. At last count, the band's worldwide record sales exceed 25 million units. Its songs remain fixtures on classic-rock radio, and have been licensed for use in approximately 50 motion pictures and an even greater number of television programs.

And, in addition to being the first band to use the term "heavy metal" in a song (in "Born to Be Wild"), Steppenwolf's punchy style helped to establish the fundamentals of the hard-rock sound that would flourish in the 1970s. Steppenwolf's remarkable resilience is largely a reflection of the fierce determination and never-say-die tenacity that's driven Kay for much of his life. He was born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in 1944 in the section of Germany then known as East Prussia. He never knew his father, who was killed fighting in Russia a month before John's birth. When John was less than a year old, he and his mother fled to what would soon become Communist-controlled East Germany. When he was four, they undertook a perilous midnight escape into West Germany. Growing up in Hannover, West Germany, John was profoundly affected by the American rock 'n' roll he heard on U.S. Armed Forces Radio. Though he didn't speak English at the time, the music's primal energy touched something deep in him, instilling both a driving ideal of personal freedom and an abiding interest in American culture.

That vision became a reality in 1958, when the teenager emigrated with his mother and stepfather to Toronto. There, he immersed himself in the rock, R&B, country and gospel music that emanated from late-night U.S. clear-channel AM stations, while learning English from the speed-rapping DJs who dominated the rock 'n' roll airwaves. By 1967, The Sparrow had run its course and Kay was back in Los Angeles, where ABC-Dunhill Records staff producer Gabriel Mekler encouraged him to form a new group to record for his label. Towards that end, the singer reenlisted two old Sparrow bandmates, drummer Jerry Edmonton and keyboardist Goldy McJohn, and recruited 17-year-old guitar prodigy Michael Monarch and bassist Rushton Moreve. The new outfit was christened Steppenwolf, after Hermann Hesse's mystical novel of the same name.

Steppenwolf's self-titled 1968 debut album-recorded in a mere four days-introduced the band's iconoclastic approach, which combined a tough, blues-rooted sound, a penchant for topical lyrics and the gritty growl of Kay, whose brooding presence and trademark shades made him one of the era's most magnetic and identifiable figures. Steppenwolf soon emerged as one of the few bands of the late '60s to successfully straddle the pop-oriented AM mainstream and the hip FM underground, scoring substantial success on both the single and album charts without tailoring its approach to pander to either constituency. "Born to Be Wild"-written by ex-Sparrow member Dennis Edmonton, aka Mars Bonfire-became Steppenwolf's first major hit, and was subsequently featured prominently (along with the band's pointed reading of Hoyt Axton's anti-hard-drug composition "The Pusher") in the seminal '60s film Easy Rider, cementing Steppenwolf's status as counterculture icons as well as earning the group a hardcore biker following. "For the times, Steppenwolf was an uncharacteristically tight band," Kay notes.

"In San Francisco, The Sparrow had been allowed to stretch out and experiment. But when Steppenwolf was created, I think Jerry and I had both come to the conclusion that the strong rhythmic element was what we really valued. Our philosophy was 'Hit 'em hard, make your point and move on.'" Steppenwolf's aggressive image co-existed with a thoughtful lyrical stance that challenged mainstream values and counterculture platitudes alike. "That idea of speaking your mind in the lyrics is something I had picked up in the folk-music community, and from growing up in post-World War II Germany," Kay states. "We didn't see why you couldn't have music that worked on a gut level but still offered some food for thought." The band's career momentum and musical progression continued with such best-selling albums as Steppenwolf The Second (which yielded another Top Five classic in "Magic Carpet Ride"), At Your Birthday Party (which spawned the Top Ten hit "Rock Me"), the ambitiously conceptual Monster (whose politically provocative title track became a surprise hit), Steppenwolf Live (which featured studio single "Hey Lawdy Mama"), Steppenwolf 7 and For Ladies Only.

Along the way, various members came and went, with bassist Moreve leaving in late 1968; he was initially replaced by former Sparrow member Nick St. Nicholas, before being supplanted in early 1970 by George Biondo. Guitarist Monarch exited in 1969, replaced first by Larry Byrom and subsequently by Kent Henry. "Steppenwolf was always kind of a work in progress," says Kay. "By our second album, we had become more confident in not having to mimic others in our attitude, in our look or in our music. We were really in uncharted territory to a great extent, because at the time there were very few models of how all this should work. You'd play some arena in Monroe, Louisiana, using the same public-address system that they used to announce basketball games, with no monitors. You'd spend a lot of time scratching your head thinking 'There's got to be a better way to do this.'" Steppenwolf's popularity and influence continued unabated into the early 1970s.

But, burned out from the endless album/tour grind, the quintet officially disbanded on Valentine's Day 1972, a day that L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty officially designated as "Steppenwolf Day." Kay then released a pair of critically acclaimed solo albums, Forgotten Songs and Unsung Heroes and My Sportin' Life, which found him exploring new musical and lyrical territory, with rewarding results. Following Steppenwolf's highly successful 1974 European "farewell" tour, Kay reformed the band with Jerry Edmonton, Goldy McJohn, George Biondo and new guitarist Bobby Cochran. The group recorded three more albums-Slow Flux, which yielded the Top 20 hit "Straight Shootin' Woman," Hour of the Wolf and Skullduggery-for the Epic-distributed Mums label, before calling it a day once again in 1976. Kay then signed with Mercury Records and relaunched his solo career with 1978's well-received All In Good Time.

It was around this time that Kay learned that two of his former bandmates were touring with a bogus "Steppenwolf." The notion of the fake band playing low-rent club gigs-and tarnishing the legacy he'd spent nearly a decade building-aroused Kay's fighting spirit, motivating him and Steppenwolf co-founder Jerry Edmonton (who by then had retired from music in favor of a career in photography) to take steps to establish their legal claim to the band name. In 1980 Kay launched an all-new lineup, now billed as John Kay and Steppenwolf, virtually starting from scratch to restore his band's good name. The new group spent the next several years working a punishing touring regimen, playing anywhere and everywhere it could to rebuild Steppenwolf's reputation as a class act. "That was a real ego adjustment, and a real test-do you want to do this badly enough to rebuild this thing from the ground up?," Kay admits. "It was a tremendously humbling experience, grinding it out 20 weeks at a time, reconquering small chunks of real estate step by step. But it showed me that there were people out there who still felt a deep connection to Steppenwolf.

By 1987 or thereabouts, we came up for air and looked around and saw what we'd accomplished. We didn't have any albums in the Top 40, but we had built this solid thing that was kind of like the Grateful Dead in miniature." Indeed, the lengthy rebuilding period had put Kay and company back in touch with a large and loyal fan base-as well as an influx of younger listeners responsive to band's enduring appeal-that has kept Steppenwolf rolling ever since. Since then, John Kay and Steppenwolf-which now includes longtime members Michael Wilk (keyboards/bass) and Ron Hurst (drums) and relatively recent addition Danny Johnson (guitar)-have released seven albums and maintained a busy international touring schedule that keeps the band on the road for several months per year. The band also hosts Wolf Fest, an annual weekend-long festival that draws fans from around the world-fondly dubbed "the Wolfpack"-to the band's adopted home base in Tennessee.

In 1994, on the eve of Steppenwolf's 25th anniversary, Kay returned to the former East Germany for a triumphant series of Steppenwolf concerts; that trip reunited him with friends and relatives he had not seen since his early childhood. The same year, Kay published his autobiography, Magic Carpet Ride, which compellingly related the ups and downs and his and his band's history. Today's Steppenwolf, operating without major-label financing, is the model of a successful cyber-age cottage industry. The band's self-contained operation incorporates an in-house 24-track digital recording studio, as well as an extensive website- serves as a cyber-clubhouse for fans around the world. The website also functions as an outlet for Steppenwolf music, allowing fans easy access to the group's recent work, as well as CD reissues of the entire Steppenwolf and John Kay album catalogue. The band continues to generate vital new music, with a number of recording projects in the works, including the recent John Kay solo effort, Heretics and Privateers. Steppenwolf's dramatic and sometimes turbulent history recently became the subject of an episode of VH-1's documentary series Behind the Music.

That much-talked-about broadcast underlined the band's ongoing stature and influence, but John Kay, now in his fourth decade with Steppenwolf, remains focused firmly on the future. "There's a lot of truth in that old cliché about whatever doesn't kill you making you stronger," Kay concludes. "Looking back, I realize that it's the struggles that have taught us how to gain our independence and live the rock 'n' roll of life on our own terms." Hermann Hesse. - Free Online Library Hermann Hesse. <a href=" Citations: MLA style: "Hermann Hesse.." The Free Library. 2007 Bookmarks Publishing LLC 18 Jan. 2017 Chicago style: The Free Library. S.v. Hermann Hesse.." Retrieved Jan 18 2017 from APA style: Hermann Hesse.. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014).

Retrieved Jan 18 2017 from IN HIS SHORT STORY "Inside and Outside" (1920), about a little idol that ruptures a friendship, Hermann Hesse revealed his life's philosophy: "Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin." Hesse, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946 and whose stature as a 20th-century German writer equals his friend and rival Thomas Mann's, examined the dual tendencies of human nature: to suffer and affirm life, to juxtapose idealism and reality, to be drawn to both good and evil. Though he initially wrote within the 19th-century German Romantic tradition, two world wars imbued him with a deep sense of modernity's isolation and surrender of the individual spirit. Hesse's works, which meld Western and Eastern philosophy with existential, spiritual, and mystical themes, embodied the search for self-realization and spiritual fulfillment. How can a person escape the bonds of society--and his or her own dual nature--to live a fulfilling life?

Is there a balance between a life of spiritual contemplation and one of physical action? He portrayed this split between the spiritual and the physical in Demian (1919), Siddhartha (1922), and the surreal Steppenwolf (1927). In all his works, Hesse urged his characters--and his readers--to search deep within their souls to rise above the physical world. HESSE WAS BORN IN 1877 in the Black Forest region of Germany. His father, a Russian citizen, and his mother, born in India to the Pietist (Protestant) missionary and Indologist Hermann Gundert, both served as missionaries in India. Although they had hoped their son would follow in their footsteps, at age 13 Hesse, familiar with his grandfather's large library, declared he wanted to become "a poet and nothing else at all." He rejected his inherited evangelicalism when he entered the Protestant seminary at Maulbronn in 1891 and ran away soon after. Hesse later criticized the severe educational system in Beneath the Wheel (1906). As a youth, he experienced the soul-searching yearnings and anxieties portrayed in his novels.

Though he strived for harmonious relationships, he struggled to follow his inner voice--one that didn't always conform to his family's and society's expectations. After a stint in secular schools, Hesse worked as a bookshop clerk, apprentice clockmaker, mechanic, and book dealer. At age 21, he published his first book, Romantic Songs. The publication of the Peter Camenzind in 1904, a novel rooted in the German Romantic tradition, allowed him to write full time, become financially independent, and marry his first wife, Maria Bernoulli, with whom he had three children. In 1911 Hesse visited India, which inspired his studies of Hindu and ancient Chinese religions and eventually resulted in Siddhartha. In 1912, Hesse and his family moved to Switzerland, where his antiwar activism earned him a traitorous reputation. His wife's mental illness, his father's death, and the chaos of the First World War soon contributed to a nervous breakdown. After undergoing psychoanalysis by Dr. Joseph B. Lang, a student and associate of Carl Jung, Hesse studied Jung's analytical psychology.

He subsequently applied many of Jung's theories about the duality between reason and creativity in his mature work. In 1919 Hesse left his family and moved to Montagnola, in southern Switzerland, where he embraced a quieter life; he became a Swiss citizen in 1923. His breakthrough novel, the autobiographical Demian, which appeared under the pen name of Emil Sinclair, reflected his emotional crisis. Siddhartha earned him new audiences. But personal crisis returned. Hesse divorced Maria and in 1924, he married singer Ruth Wenger. The years between the Word Wars produced Steppenwolf, about the isolation produced by modernity and, on a personal level, about the problems Hesse experienced relating to others. In 1931, after publishing Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), Hesse married a Jewish woman, Ninon Auslander. Though he had initially found wide support in Nazi Germany, he was blacklisted in 1943 when, in a reprint of the novel, he insisted on retaining the parts dealing with anti-Semitism. His masterpiece, The Glass Bead Game, was published in Zurich.

Hesse received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946; he wrote no major novels after that but published poems and reviews in Swiss newspapers. He died in 1962, at age 85, in Montagnola. The Cult Figure HESSE FOUND VALUE in different Western philosophers, from Plato to Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. He claimed, however, that none of these philosophers influenced him as much as Indian and Chinese religious philosophy. He wrote his first short works about India in the 1900s; in 1911 he trekked to India, but he returned disappointed in the lack of spiritual fulfillment he found there. Siddhartha explored the idea that self-realization must come from within. As Hesse summarized the basic teachings of Buddhism in the novel, "Your soul is the whole world." The Eastern philosophy articulated in Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, as well as the themes of protest and rebellion in earlier works like Demian, touched a generation of restless youth in the 1960s and 1970s.

Though Hesse was not widely read outside the German-speaking world until 1946, his work appealed to a "counterculture" society concerned with the issues he had addressed in the 1930s--pacifism, humanitarian ideals, and the fate of individual freedom. In the United States, Hesse's work resounded loudly with youth living against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War. Hesse became something of a cult figure: the rock band Sparrow changed its name to Steppenwolf ("Born to Be Wild"); Siddhartha became a spiritual guide for American Beat poets; and the film version of Siddhartha became a cult classic. If less canonic today--devotees of Modern Library's list of 100 Best Novels of the 20th century won't find any of Hesse's novels there--he remains one of the best-selling German-speaking writers. MAJOR WORKS Peter Camenzind (1904) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hesse's successful first novel provided him with the means to marry and write full-time.

Critics see Peter Camenzind as a precursor to his more famous works, if more naive and humorous. But like his later novels, it is also what Hesse called one of his "biographies of the soul"--the journey to reconcile the inner self with the outer world. THE STORY: When the discontented Peter Camenzind leaves his Swiss mountain village in search of new experiences in France and Italy, failed romances, calamitous friendships, and the suffering he sees around him squelch his optimism. Then he meets Boppi, a helpless invalid, who rekindles Peter's love of humanity and life. "In a disillusioned aesthete's new style of life found its expression in a corresponding new style of art.... Camenzind's story is less a smooth continuum of evolving action firmly anchored in space and time than a series of loosely juxtaposed recollections with interposed self-contemplation, nature description, and social comment." JOSEPH MILECK, HERMANN HESSE: LIFE AND ART, 1981 "The writing does not have the simple, parable-like power that makes so appealing, but it is surprising how modern and lively a book of 1904 reads.

Peter almost feels like a lad written into a Nick Hornby novel, fretting about how to get a career, get a life, get a wife and be good all at the same time." HELEN RUMBELOW, THE TIMES [LONDON], 5/11/02 THE BOTTOM LINE: Hesse's debut novel reflects his own life as an artist in his 20s. Demian (1919) Hesse wrote Demian, his breakthrough novel, during a major period of crisis. The U.S. had declared war on Germany, and, from his safe perch in Switzerland, Hesse was writing antiwar tracts and publishing books for prisoners. Breaking from Neo-Romanticism, Demian showcased Jung's concept of individuation, which posited psychological development as the encounter between consciousness and unconsciousness. The coming-of-age story resounded with returning young soldiers and the era's sense of disillusionment. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE STORY: "I wanted only to try to live in obedience to the promptings which came from my true self," says Emil Sinclair as he reflects back on his childhood.

"Why was that so very difficult?" As a boy, Sinclair acknowledges the good and evil of human nature and reluctantly embraces the "forbidden" world of dark thoughts and petty crime. Then he meets the precocious, radical Max Demian, who challenges his worldview. With war fast approaching, Sinclair searches his soul and finds that, "Nothing in the world is more disturbing to a man than following the path that leads him to himself." "In the early Twenties ... this brief, bewitching and bewitched novel created a deep stir among young intellectuals in Europe and even in America. What stirred these readers was its revolutionary attitude toward good and evil; its prophetic insight...; its repudiation of the accepted forms of thought and behavior as unequal and even inimical to the content of man's nature.... Today the ideas explored in are no longer new, but they are still fresh." ALICE S. MORRIS, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 2/1/48 "The electrifying influence exercised on a whole generation just after the First World War by ... is unforgettable.

With uncanny accuracy this poetic work struck the nerve of the times and called forth grateful rapture from a whole youthful generation who believed that an interpreter of their innermost life had risen from their own midst." HERMAN HESSE, DEMIAN, FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY THOMAS MANN "Hesse's was the first Jungian novel.... In the traditional German the young hero progresses toward maturity, learning from his mistakes and from wise preceptors. Though belongs to this tradition, the preceptors are not entirely separate from the hero, Emil Sinclair, whose name suggests a combination of sin and enlightenment." RONALD HAYMAN, A LIFE OF JUNG, 2002 THE BOTTOM LINE: An unforgettable coming-of-age story about lost innocence and the search for self-awareness and fulfillment. Siddhartha (1922) "I tried to discover that which is common to all confessions and all human forms of religiousness and that which stands above all national differences, that which can be believed in and respected by all races," Hesse said of his most widely read work. Most critics read Siddhartha as a parable of the life of Gautama Buddha.

Hesse explored his trademark themes from Buddhist and other Indian philosophical and religious perspectives, including alienation from humanity and the search for self-knowledge. Interestingly, the protagonist's final epiphany relates to nature. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE STORY: In ancient India, true happiness and peace evade Siddhartha, the blessed young son of a Brahmin. He and his best friend thus leave his family for a group of wandering ascetics. But self-denial does not produce enlightenment, and Siddhartha seeks out Gotama the Buddha. When this also fails, he meets a simple, contented ferryman who takes him to a city. After years of a hedonistic lifestyle, Siddhartha feels spiritually trapped. Returning to the ferryman, he achieves total enlightenment as he listens to the flowing river. "Every great mystic and every great missionary reports essentially the same thing: the eternal flow, timeless series of evolutions, and so forth, and Hermann Hesse is one of the great visionary spokesmen of the twentieth century." TIMOTHY LEARY, TURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT, 1999 "It is neither dogmatic nor preachy....

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of books on Buddhism that you could read, but few of them give the clarity of insight to be found in. Hesse is a writer of the first order and his simple, direct style brings home his points with extreme clarity." ALLEN L. SCARBROUGH, WHAT YOU NEED TO READ TO KNOW JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING, 2001 THE BOTTOM LINE: Hesse's classic account of a struggle to find truth--and freedom--from within. THE MOVIE: 1972, directed by Conrad Rooks and starring Shashi Kapoor, Simi Garewal, and Romesh Sharma. Steppenwolf (1927) Steppenwolf, a semiautobiographical novel, caused a minor scandal upon publication. While Hesse was writing this strange, surreal work--which was to bring him worldwide recognition--his first marriage and his brief second marriage collapsed, and he became psychologically ill. The novel, which reflected the anxiety caused by growing Fascism, anti-Semitism, and poverty in Germany, foreshadowed the violence to follow.

Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, once said this was one of his favorite books because it "exposes the problem of modernity's isolated and self-isolating man." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE STORY: Middle-aged intellectual Harry Haller, aloof, suicidal, and disdainful of bourgeois convention while at the same time a part of it, imagines himself to be a "wolf of the Steppes," torn between seeking human bonds and isolation. One evening Harry enters the "Magic Theater--For Madmen Only" and receives a pamphlet that describes his feelings as a Steppenwolf. Weeks later, Harry meets Hermine and her hedonistic friends, representations of his lost Self. When he returns to the Magic Theater, each door opens to a surreal, barbarous, but ultimately accepting world. "[It is] atrociously horrible.... This is no book for merry youth or to bring cheer in hours of despondency. But it is a most valuable contribution for the serious psychologist, for the seeker of knowledge of the abyss of the human soul.

At the same time it is infinitely rich in colorful fancy and poetic variegation." GABRIELE REUTER, NEW YORK TIMES, 9/25/27 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Despite its analysis of the neurosis of our time, and despite the fact that Hesse is deserving of a wide audience, is not likely to become very widely read ... the book may strike the average reader as too 'European,' too mystical and possibly too shocking in its brutal honesty." CLAUDE HILL, NEW YORK TIMES, 3/16/47 "Hesse struck the nerve of the times.... In this work Hesse uncompromisingly indicted middle-class materialism, hypocrisy, and conformity, as well as the manifestations of modern industrial society." COLUMBIA DICTIONARY OF MODERN EUROPEAN LITERATURE, ED. BY JEAN ALBERT BEDE AND WILLIAM BENBOW EDGERTON, 1980 THE BOTTOM LINE: This mystical journey into the Self reveals the raw dichotomies of humanity.

THE MOVIE: 1974, directed by Fred Haines and starring Max von Sydow, Dominique Sanda, and Pierre Clementi. The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) (1943) * NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE, 1946 Hesse considered his last major work, which he began in 1931, as "a protective shield against these ugly times, a magical refuge." Over 500 pages long, it summarizes Hesse's lifelong concerns: Eastern religion and philosophy, pacifism, the duality of intellect and creativity, and humanity's quest for self-knowledge and enlightenment. Some critics thought this philosophical novel abstruse; others viewed it as a brilliant critique of an anti-intellectual culture. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE STORY: In a distant future in a "secular monastery" in the province of Castalia, a refuge for the intellectual elite, Josef Knecht (German for "servant") tries to master the Glass Bead Game, an abstract synthesis of all arts and disciplines, from music to mathematics.

Noticed by the Magister Ludi, Thomas von der Trave (a thinly veiled Thomas Mann), Knecht rises through the Order and becomes Master of the Game. After trying to reconcile the intellectual, spiritual world with material reality, he vows to devote his life to improving humanity. "[The novel] is a book about the future whichis really about the past; a timeless, universal game which is also the toy of a quaint passing culture; a work filled with impressive learning yet leading to a negation of reason and knowledge.... Kafka, Proust, Joyce were far more accomplished, more original stylists. But none of them speaks that simple language accenting the search for salvation--simple while appearing complex--which is the secret of Hesse's success." RALPH FREEDMAN, NEW YORK TIMES, 1/4/70. THE BOTTOM LINE: The highly philosophical work that earned Hesse the Nobel Prize for literature. Where to Start THE GLASS BEAD GAME, generally considered Hesse's masterpiece, embodies his great theme: the quest for self-knowledge and enlightenment.

Try DEMIAN for a painful coming-of-age tale that presages these themes or STEPPENWOLF for a surreal journey that captures the anxiety of the world wars. For Hesse's quintessential Eastern work, start with SIDDHARTHA, which inspired many generations of idealistic youth. RELATED ARTICLE: Hesse's Nobel Prize Banquet Speech, 1946 "I feel akin to you and to the idea that inspired the Nobel Foundation, the idea that the mind is international and supra-national, that it ought to serve not war and annihilation, but peace and reconciliation. My ideal, however, is not the blurring of national characteristics, such as would lead to an intellectually uniform humanity. On the contrary, may diversity in all shapes and colours live long on this dear earth of ours. What a wonderful thing is the existence of many races, many peoples, many languages, and many varieties of attitude and outlook!

If I feel hatred and irreconcilable enmity toward wars, conquests, and annexations, I do so for many reasons, but also because so many organically grown, highly individual, and richly differentiated achievements of human civilization have fallen victim to these dark powers." RELATED ARTICLE: Selected Other Works * Discussed in Major Works * PETER CAMENZIND (1904) BENEATH THE WHEEL (1906) This semiautobiographical novel recounts the story of a bright boy from a Black Forest village who, when he rises academically, cracks under a system that represses the human spirit. GERTRUDE (1910) In this fictional memoir, Hesse explores the paradoxes of human existence. Kuhn, a crippled but gifted composer, befriends a self-destructive opera singer, Heinrich Muoth, and falls in love with Gertrude Imthor. But he loses her to Heinrich. However, Heinrich's and Gertrude's disastrous and tragic marriage becomes the inspiration for Kuhn's opera--the most important artistic success in his life.

ROSSHALDE (1914) In this short novel, a famous painter searches for peace at his magnificent estate, Rosshalde. Trapped in a marriage with his estranged wife, having a precious young son, and afflicted with creative block and great fear, he searches for freedom outside of conventional society. KNULP: THREE TALES FROM THE LIFE OF KNULP (1915) A vagabond man comes to terms with a life lived in pure freedom. * DEMIAN (1919) STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR (1919) These eight short stories are concerned with the subconscious, surrealism, dream worlds--and ultimately, wisdom. KLINGSOR'S LAST SUMMER (1920) The title novella in this collection, written shortly after Hesse's move to Montagnola, features a dying painter. WANDERING: NOTES AND SKETCHES (1920) With Montagnola as his base, Hesse walked everywhere in the German Alps and recorded his inspirations in prose and watercolor sketches. * SIDDHARTHA (1922) IN SIGHT OF CHAOS (1923) A collection of essays.

CRISIS: PAGES FROM A DIARY (1928) NARCISSUS AND GOLDMUND (1930) In medieval Europe, two men--one worldly, decadent, and sensual, the other ascetic, cerebral, and monastic--embark on a journey of self-discovery. THE JOURNEY TO THE EAST (1932) H. H., a German choirmaster, takes a pilgrimage through time and space with a mysterious League composed of famous real and fictitious characters. But their journey to the East and "home and youth of the soul" ends in disaster--and greater understanding. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS (1937) Not exactly autobiographical, many of Hesse's musings veer into fantastical "what if" situations concerning his life. * THE GLASS BEAD GAME (1943) IF THE WAR GOES ON: REFLECTIONS ON WAR AND POLITICS (1946) Hesse reflects on his pacifism, opposition to Nazi militarism, and the general political milieu of his life.

About each essay he said, "I strive to guide the reader not into the world theater with its political problems but into his innermost being, before the judgment seat of his very personal conscience." STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR (1972) This collection of stories (1913-1918) deals with the world of dreams and the subconscious. HOURS IN THE GARDEN AND OTHER POEMS (1974) These six narrative poems describe nature. TALES OF STUDENT LIFE (1975) Ever fascinated with school life--the defiance that marked his own brief schooling and the tensions it created between freedom and discipline, intellect and emotion--Hesse penned stories that depict German student life from the 1700s on. MY BELIEF: ESSAYS ON LIFE AND ART (1976) In these essays on life and art (1904-1961), Hesse meditates on Dostoevsky and other writers (including himself), moral and political issues, and the dichotomy of science and poetry.

SOUL OF THE AGE: SELECTED LETTERS OF HERMANN HESSE, 1891-1962 (1991) These autobiographical letters reveal Hesse's inner and outer life. THE FAIRY TALES OF HERMANN HESSE (1997) These lyrical tales, about the "essence" of life, weave together Eastern mysticism and the traditional European fairy tale. COPYRIGHT 2007 Bookmarks Publishing LLC No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder. Copyright 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Article Details Steppenwolf - For madmen only - Band Name Explained Band Name Explained skip to main | skip to sidebar Steppenwolf - For madmen only Legendary American-Canadian rock band the repertoire of which includes Born To Be Wild as perhaps their best known song.

Once Steppenwolf performed by the rather tame name The Sparrows, but record producer Gabriel Mekler (1942-1977) got the band's alpha male, John Kay, interested in the idea to name the band Steppenwolf, after the novel by German/Swiss writer and poet Herman Hesse. Active: 1967-1972; 1974-1976; 1980-present, CAN/USA Demian - News, Photos, Videos, Bio. Free music downloads at MP3.com Demian Read More... Demian (1) was a Texan psychedelic rock band (formerly known as Bubble Puppy), formed in 1966 in San Antonio, Texas by Rod Prince and Roy Cox. Looking to form a "top gun rock band" based on the concept of dual lead guitars, Prince and Cox recruited Todd Potter, a gymnast, saxophone player and guitarist. With the addition of Danny Segovia, the original line up of Bubble Puppy was complete. Bubble Puppy's live debut was as the opening act for The Who in San Antonio.

After several line-up changes, the final roster for Bubble Puppy settled at Rod Prince and Todd Potter on lead guitars, Roy Cox on bass guitar and David 'Fuzzy' Fore on drums. In 1967, Bubble Puppy moved to Austin, Texas and signed a recording contract with Houston-based International Artists, home to the 13th Floor Elevators and the Red Krayola. Bubble Puppy scored a Top-20 U.S. hit in 1969 with their single, "Hot Smoke & Sassafras"; it peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 100. In 1969, Bubble Puppy released their only full-length album, A Gathering of Promises. However, despite Bubble Puppy's early success with the "Hot Smoke & Sassafras" single, they experienced numerous conflicts with International Artists, and parted ways with the label in 1970. Signing Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf as a manager, Bubble Puppy moved to Los Angeles, changed their name to Demian and signed to ABC-Dunhill Records.

Demian released one self-titled album in 1971, but its failure to perform on the charts led to financial difficulties with the label and, in 1972, the group split up. The members of Bubble Puppy continued to be active in the music industry after the band's demise. Potter and Prince played with Sirius through the late 1970s, and Fore drummed with the Texas punk rock band, D-Day, co-writing their cult hit, "Too Young to Date". In 1987, the original Bubble Puppy lineup reunited, for their comeback LP, Wheels Go Round. Roy Cox founded The Blues Knights and issued a CD entitled Before I Go in 1999. He seems to have disappeared since. The name "Bubble Puppy" was taken from "Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy", a fictitious children's game in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Demian was named after Herman Hesse's 1919 novel, and "Hot Smoke & Sassafras" was a line lifted from an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" Demian (2) was a 90's Spanish music project.

Before Ô Paradis the catalan artist Demian Recio released some self-produced CDr under the name of Demian. Demian (3) member of Serbian hip-hop duo V.I.P Demian (4) Hardcore Crust band from Brazil, with female vocals. They're featured on "We're Still Pissed!! Female Fronted HC-Punk Compilation". Read more on Last.fm . User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply. Top Songs Bubble Puppy Discography at Discogs Bubble Puppy Profile: The group was formed in 1966 in San Antonio, Texas by Rod Prince and Roy Cox. Looking to form a "top gun rock band" based on the concept of dual lead guitars, a staple of southern rock that was highly unusual on the psychedelic music scene, Prince and Cox recruited Todd Potter; a gymnast, saxophone player and guitarist. With the addition of Danny Segovia, the original line up of Bubble Puppy was complete. The name "Bubble Puppy" was taken from "Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy", a fictitious children's game in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Bubble Puppy's live debut was as the opening act for The Who in San Antonio. After several line-up changes, the final roster for Bubble Puppy settled at Rod Prince and Todd Potter on lead guitars, Roy Cox on bass guitar and David "Fuzzy" Fore on drums. In 1967, Bubble Puppy moved to Austin, Texas and signed a recording contract with Houston-based International Artists, home to the 13th Floor Elevators and the Red Krayola. Bubble Puppy scored a Top-20 U.S. hit in 1969 with their single, "Hot Smoke & Sasafrass". The name was a misheard line lifted from an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies". The single peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 100. The song was also covered internationally, by The Mooche in the UK. In 1969, Bubble Puppy released their only full-length album, A Gathering of Promises. However, despite Bubble Puppy's early success with the "Hot Smoke & Sasafrass" single, they experienced numerous conflicts with International Artists, and parted ways with the label in 1970. Signing Nick St.

Nicholas of Steppenwolf as a manager, Bubble Puppy moved to Los Angeles. Their name was changed to Demian (9) (after Herman Hesse's 1919 novel, at the suggestion of their manager's wife); this was to avoid contractual difficulties with their previous record company but also because the former name appeared to link them with Bubblegum music. The group signed to ABC-Dunhill Records and released one self-titled album in 1971, but its failure to perform on the charts led to financial difficulties with the label and, in 1972, the group split up. The members of Bubble Puppy continued to be active in the music industry after the band's demise. Potter and Prince played with Sirius (13) through the late 1970s, and Fore drummed with the Texas punk rock band, D-Day, co-writing their cult hit, "Too Young to Date". In 1984, the original Bubble Puppy lineup reunited for performances and recordings, released as the LP, Wheels Go Round. Roy Cox founded The Blues Knights and issued a CD entitled "Before I Go" in 1999.

He formed the NYC Outlaws in September 2007 in New York City, along with Tony Saracene on guitar, Dan Curley on guitar, Cody Willard on guitar, Evan Hammer on bass and Billy Brooks on drums. Sites: What’s in a Name? – #6 | NED ROCK What’s in a Name? – #6 Bands Named After Published Works (part one) Alienated author Albert Camus, writer of such existential masterworks like “The Plague” and “The Stranger,” once reflected that “music is the most perfect art.” “Truly fertile music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate,” he wrote, “will be a music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.” Perhaps it is in the spirit of Camus’ words that some musical groups have chosen to reciprocate this honorary praise by naming their bands after a favorite piece of literature or published work. A conclusion based on no reason behind their choice — just acknowledgement of art transcending mediums.

Members of a particular band in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll made a special effort to link their musical persona with literature and the art world of their day. After meeting in 1965 at New York’s Syracuse University, Lou Reed and John Cale, along with guitarist Sterling Morrison and percussionist Angus MacLise, decided to name their band after a pulpy, pornographic S&M novel that MacLise had in his possession.

No reason behind it really, just a nod to the smutty work called “The Velvet Underground.” Bringing the German-born, smoky-voiced chanteuse Nico into their fold, the Underground linked up with Andy Warhol and his Scene, and became a part of his multi-media show, “The Exploding Plastic Inevitable.” The group would go on to explore dark, edgy themes in their music, including “Venus In Furs,” (another allusion to S&M, inspired by a novel of the same name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch), as well as cult classics “Heroin,” and “White Light/White Heat.” Although their heyday was short-lived, The Velvet Underground’s music made a lasting impression on adoring critics and artists like David Bowie and Sonic Youth to name but a few. In the following year, 1966, seven musicians got together in Cardiff, Wales to form a bluesy rock band called Amen Corner. Their name was taken from a play by heralded African-American author James Baldwin.

Baldwin’s “The Amen Corner” related the story of a devout woman who tries to keep her son on the righteous path after his wayward father returns to their Harlem home to play jazz. Perhaps in keeping with the jazzy notions of Baldwin’s piece, Amen Corner, the band, was keen on having two saxophonists as members of the group. While not charting significantly in the United States, Amen Corner broke through the British top 10 on several occasions, and toured in 1967 with Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. German author Herman Hesse was noted for his severely analytical, introspective works after World War I. In one particular novel, protagonist Harry Haller tried to resolve the clashes he had within himself and the outside world, which resulted in his life being split into countless extremes in polarity. Pretty heady stuff. So why did the headbanging forefathers of rock, the lookin’-for-adventure, “Born To Be Wild” tunesmiths called Steppenwolf, decide to take their name from the title of that Hesse novel? Well, first of all, their producer suggested it, and second, well, it sounds pretty cool, man. So be it.

German-born lead singer, John Kay (born Joachim Krauledat) guided his heavy metal band through hits like the aforementioned “Born To Be Wild” which held the #2 spot in the U.S. charts for three weeks in August 1968, and “Magic Carpet Ride,” which reached #3 in November of that year. The following year of 1968 brought another heavy metal outfit known as Uriah Heep. Formed in London originally with the name Spice, they switched their name to the one conceived by Charles Dickens in 1850, which Dickens gave to a conniving clerk character in his landmark novel “David Copperfield.” While Dicken’s Uriah Heep wormed his way to the top as a partner in a law firm, the band Uriah Heep barely cracked the top 40 in Britain and the United States with their songs “Easy Livin’” and “Sweet Lorraine.” Fading away in the 1970s and then resurfacing in the heavy metal scene of the ‘80s, Uriah Heep’s blend of bass-heavy metal and organ-driven blues would influence sounds of the big hair metal groups of the early ‘80s.

A benevolent millionaire funded the formation of another group in 1969, and the group went on to garner a number one album in the United States. Sounds like something out of a modern-day Charles Dickens novel too, doesn’t it? Alas, it was one Stanley Miesegaes, a wealthy Dutch playboy, whose real-life philanthropy enabled keyboardist and singer Rick Davies to gather a group of musicians in London to form a band. It’s not like they were begging for money, but perhaps that is why they settled on naming themselves after an obscure William H. Davies novel called “The Autobiography of a Supertramp.” The story dealt with the musings of a wandering English hobo whose life only seems to go downhill after being born in a public house in a nondescript village. The band’s fortunate turn of fate led to a series of underwhelming first releases throughout the early ‘70s, but yielded a monster smash of an album, “Breakfast in America,” in 1979. With tunes like “The Lyrical Song,” and “Goodbye Stranger” receiving massive airplay, Supertramp’s successful LP was #1 on the Billboard charts for an overall six weeks.

Another benefactor was helping a band in 1969 find its voice and its literary name. Guy Stevens was an A&R executive with Island Records when he listened to a demo tape of a quintet of musicians calling themselves Silence. He liked what he heard, but didn’t like their name. Possessing a knack for bestowing unique names on bands (Stevens supposedly had given another band, Procol Harum, their moniker), the executive remembered a book he’d read in prison while serving a short stint for a drug charge. It was an underground comic novel about a man who wants desperately to break from the conformity and labels of daily life, but, through a series of misadventures, learns exactly where his position in society is destined to be. Written by Willard Manus, “Mott The Hoople” became the band’s new name. Stevens replaced their lead singer with curly-tressed, sunglass-wearing Ian Hunter, and after a series of poorly-received cover tunes, the band scored a sizable hit with the David Bowie-penned “All The Young Dudes” in 1972.

A very different kind of literature influenced part of the name of a band that formed in Winnipeg, Canada in 1972. Technically-defined as a gearing mechanism of a vehicle engine that reduces the power output required to maintain driving speed in a specific range by lowering the gear ratio, the word “overdrive” became synonymous with tire-peeling, pedal-to-the-medal rock ‘n’ roll when it was incorporated into the name of C.F. Turner and Randy, Robbie and Tim Bachman’s band. Having already tasted success with the Canadian band Guess Who, Randy Bachman helped christen his new group with the aid of a trucking industry magazine named “Overdrive.” BTO, as they came to be fondly called, scored a couple of successes with “Let It Ride” and “Takin’ Care of Business” before they went to number one on the U.S. charts for a week in November 1974 with “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” A drive shaft of a different nature was the germination behind the cult-favorite band Steely Dan when Donald Fagen and Walter Becker answered guitarist Denny Dias’ ad for musicians in 1972.

Coining their name from the hardcore, drug-laced, underground novel “Naked Lunch” by William Burroughs, the moniker referred to a Steely Dan model of rubber phallus made by a company named Yokohama. The band did not face any stiff competition in their field of jazz-laced, obscure style of songwriting in the early ‘70s, and as their group line-up became more tumescent with ever-changing session players, Steely Dan produced their best album “Aja,” containing the hits “Peg” and “Deacon Blues” in 1977. Be sure to log in next week for part two of Bands Named After Published Works © 2000 Ned Truslow

Question: What name connects a novel by Herman Hesse and a 1970s rock band?
Answer: Steppenwolf